Check books, receipt books, coupon packs, traffic citation books and other books where pages are to be removed one at a time from the top of stacked pages generally have the pages releasably secured together along one edge. The releasable securing means may be perforations connecting the page portion to be removed to page extensions that are secured together by staples, adhesive or the like. In some cases, a rubbery adhesive is coated along an edge of the page stack to allow pages to be pulled away one at a time.
Generally, a stub is provided at the end of the check for receiving information identifying the payee and the amount of the attached check. This tends to make the checkbook rather long. A stub may be folded over the check to reduce the length of the checkbook, as described by Roqueplo in French Patent No. 2,597,408. In either case, perforations between check and stub allow the check to be removed. In other cases, the checks are bound together along one long edge and a check register is provided for entering information about the check.
Sometimes receipt books, check books and the like often have a check stub or copy page behind each original check, receipt, etc, with either carbon paper or a pressure sensitive marking material between the original and copy pages to make a copy any writing on the original. Typical of such checkbooks are those described by Winiarski in U.S. Pat. No. 4,392,675 and Shepard in U.S. Pat. No. 2,678,223. Generally, a sheet of cardboard or the like must be placed behind the copy page when writing on the original to prevent the writing from appearing on subsequent pages.
While generally effective, these arrangements have several problems. After writing a check or receipt, etc., two pages can be inadvertently gripped and removed together. A loose check may be accidentally sent with the original or may be lost and forged by a miscreant. Generally, receipt books pages are numbered and it is important that all receipts be accounted for. A second, blank, receipt removed with one that has been filled out can be easily lost.
If a check book is left unattended in a public place, someone can easily remove a check from the back of the book to forge and cash. The owner will likely not notice for some time that the back of the book check has been removed.
Thus, there is a continuing need for improvements in checkbooks, receipt books and the like which are more convenient to use, provide protection against inadvertent removal of more than one page when only one was desired and protect against removal of a page other than the top page.